Google Play Newsstand Goes Material

We’ve started seeing a good number of apps going material design lately. And that includes a few Google apps. Which is refreshing to see, since usually Google apps are some of the most lagging apps to get their design updated to match the core Android OS. The latest one is Google Play Newsstand. Which I actually use daily as it’s a great looking news app, and it’s already installed on your device, so that’s one less app to install.

The update includes bigger and brighter images, more contextual headers and smoother transitions. As well as the Material Design aspects that will be a part of Android L that should be launching in the next few weeks here on the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9. According to Google,

“Today’s redesign brings a new magazine reading experience on your phone. In the past, print magazines have been hard to read on a small screen, zooming in and out to skim an article. But now you’ll see a list of articles from the magazine that you can toggle through and easily read with big images right on your phone.”

Of course, it’s a staged rollout. As much as we hate those, it makes plenty of sense. Which we saw a prime reason why Google does staged rollouts when Apple pushed out iOS 8.0.1 last week. Which killed cellular connectivity for just about everyone with an iPhone that updated. Google does these rollouts to be sure there are no issues before they are pushed out to everyone. Which makes more sense with OTA’s and Google Play Services, with apps, I don’t think we need to be that careful. Although it is nice to take precautions.

How many of you are awaiting the new version of Google Play Newsstand to hit your device? Let us know in the comments below.